Unanswered questions remain about Line 5
Our community has experienced more than a dozen years of construction and traffic congestion, especially around the LRT stations at Bayview Avenue and Laird Drive, as well as by the tunnel’s exit east of Brentcliffe Road.
Not just the arterial streets have been affected: many previously quiet residential streets have also been plagued with extra traffic, even more speeding vehicles, trucks, vibrations and noise. What will change, now that the LRT, aka Line 5, is in full service?
Will commuters who, over the years, discovered and diverted into Leaside’s inner streets, continue to drive their cars through our neighbourhood? Or might large numbers switch to the LRT and other public transit?
If so, does the new LRT have room for that kind of ridership increase? How long will it be before Line 5 is at full passenger capacity? Keep in mind the amount of residential development being built all along the new line, including near the new Leaside and Laird stations.
And can it manage the additional passengers delivered to those stations by buses which have now been rerouted to feed Line 5?
Much depends on whether the transit system offers both capacity and convenience. It is still early days, but I’ve already heard of problems with non-functioning elevators and difficult-to-decode signage regarding how to switch to and from the LRT level to a bus platform.
Even with the line in full service, we still need surface transit, and lots of it, to connect people with the local in-between places they need to reach. An example: many LRT stations, like the Leaside and Laird ones, are not located within comfortable walking distance of each other. Although the TTC has released information about route changes to connect passengers with the Eglinton line, we still have little idea how frequently buses will run along Eglinton Avenue itself. Timing and availability are key. If bus transit is infrequent, long waits for a bus on Eglinton will not be an incentive to use transit.
We hope all will be well, but there are still lots of unanswered questions. Wouldn’t it be ironic if, after all the problems Leasiders have had to endure during the years of Eglinton Crosstown construction, the new line could actually make transit for our community less available and accessible than it was before?
The Leaside Residents Association invites you to attend our monthly LRA board meetings, which take place at 7:30 p.m. on the first Wednesday of every month. Our March meeting is on Wed., March 4th, via Zoom. For contact information and more details and updates, visit leasideresidents.ca and press the Contact Us button, or check out leasideresidents.ca/contact-us.
